Monday, February 04, 2008

Bits for a February Evening

Terrific event yesterday in the Spoken Word Series. Featured two local artists, one a market researcher, one a high school teacher, both entertaining poets. This was Catherine Magia's first feature (I love that we can provide that opportunity), and S. Thomas Summers has two chapbooks to his credit. A great contrast in styles and presentation (and even in appearance), which really enhanced the event for me. You should have been there.

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I had the over (or would have, if I bet on football). But who cares?

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Finally finished reading the first of my Christmas presents: How Life Imitates Chess, by Garry Kasparov. My review is up at Goodreads, if you'd like to know more about how I liked it (which I did). Interesting polarization on the Goodreads reviews of this book: mostly 2s and 4s, some 1s and 5, few 3s. Is that typical of this site? I suppose this genre (celebrity business/advice) does tend to bend along with the star, with fans preferring the book. But I'm not sure why non-fans would even be interested to read the book. And I am I the only person who tends to dismiss ratings with no rationale posted?

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Fifteen days to Johan!

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Yes, reading the Kasparov book got me thinking about poetry and chess again. Also reminded me how far my chess skills have fallen since founding the chess club in high school and taking the club on the road to compete against other local schools. No, really.

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Super Tuesday is upon is. Not important to me who you vote for, just that you vote. I've said many times here that your politics predict little about the quality of your writing, but I do find a correlation between the ability and willingness to invest in forming quality political opinions and the willingness to invest in creating quality literary product. If you're interested, my first choices in both parties have already packed up the pamphlets for 2012; that's all you're going to get from me on the subject.

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